Wounds and Injuries
An adventurer without a scar is either very good, very lucky, or very new to the profession. Trap-ridden dungeons, rabid monsters, and sharp weapons are notoriously bad for your health. Some adventurers are lucky enough to retire with just a few injuries to show for their career. Many, however, die from injury long before retirement. Bloodied Your health is your most precious resource and, as an adventurer, keeping hold of it is not an easy task. You are considered bloodied when you have lost half of your hit points. When bloodied, you have taken a large cut, bruise, or other injury. Some monsters may react differently to you when you are bloodied, becoming frenzied or blood-thirsty, while others may have an easier time detecting you by scent. If you are bloodied, it's a little harder to recover your stamina and health. While bloodied, you must use a bandage or other first-aid material in order to spend any hit dice and recover hit points when resting. Additionally, you may also expend 1 use of a Healer's Kit if one is available to remove the bloodied condition. Lingering Wounds When you fall to 0 hit points, you've taken significant damage and gain an open, lingering wound somewhere on your body. Roll on the Lingering Wounds table to see which part of you was wounded, or pick one based on the type of damage you suffered. Each time you gain a wound, you also gain one level of Exhaustion. This exhaustion is permanent for as long as your wound is left untreated. Treating and Healing Wounds A wound hinders you while it's untreated making life difficult with exhaustion, but they do heal naturally over time. You can treat a wound during a short or long rest with first-aid knowledge and supplies. Make a DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check using a bandage to patch up the wound. Expending 1 charge of a Healer's Kit gives advantage on the roll and does not use any additional supplies. A treated wound remains on your body, though it no longer causes exhaustion. A wound will only heal properly during a long rest or with magical healing. At the end of a long rest, you may check to see if each of your wounds have healed. Make a DC 15 Constitution check for each wound. Some downtime activities, such as resting, may allow you to roll the check with advantage. You may use magical effects to heal a wound. You do not gain any hit points from the magic in doing this, as all of the spell's power is used on your wound. Reopening Wounds If you are critically hit during combat, any wounds that have not yet been healed, but have been treated, may reopen. When a wound reopens, it starts applying exhaustion again, requiring you to treat it to remove the exhaustion, and you lose a hit die. If a wound was already untreated when you took critical damage, you lose two hit die instead of one. Permanent Injuries Some monsters are especially deadly, destructive, and vicious. When they hit, they hit hard enough to break bones and sever limbs. Dragons, giants, ogres, if it's huge, its attacks are usually extremely violent. If you are reduced to 0 hit points by an attack that would be considered violent, you suffer a debilitating Permanent Injury. Roll to see which injury you suffer. Reroll any nonsensical result. When you gain an injury, you also gain a level of exhaustion. As with lingering wounds, this exhaustion is permanent until you treat the injury in some fashion. Treating Injuries Once you gain an injury, it remains active on your body, causing exhaustion until treated. There are three main ways to treat an injury: * Prosthetics. Wear a prosthetic device to replace a missing body part. * Medical Aid. Receive medical attention or even surgery to close up major damage and internal bleeding. This can only be done during a long rest. * Magic. Injuries can be reversed with the Greater Restoration spell (or something of equivalent power). Once an injury has been treated, the exhaustion is lifted and you can act normally again. Prosthetics A prosthesis is a device that replaces a missing body part, such as an arm, leg, to treat an injury. You can find or commission basic prosthetic devices in town from appropriate craftsmen and healers. You may find prosthetics have been augmented with magic in some fashion, granting them extra properties. These are much rarer in the world and far more expensive.